Cowboy Cookies

I have eaten all the Fig Rolls I made last week, I'm not ashamed as the figgy bit counted as one of my Five-a-Day. I can now compensate by making cookies with the chocolate chips my Gourmet Sister sent me. Flicking through the Field Guide to Cookies I decided to make 'Cowboy Cookies', maybe things would have been different on that Mountain if they had had a supply of these?!

COWBOY COOKIES

Makes 24

230g Flour

1 Teaspoon Baking Soda

1/2 Teaspoon Salt

225g Butter

110g Sugar

110g Light Brown Sugar

2 Eggs

1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
175g Rolled Oats

200g Chocolate Chips

115g Walnuts

• Preheat the oven 180/350/Gas 4. Line two oven sheets.
• Sieve the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and set aside.
• In a stand mixer cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until combined.
• Add the flour and mix on a low speed until just combined.
• Stir in the oats, chocolate chips and walnuts.
• Grab little balls of dough, about the size of a large walnut, place on the tray and flatten slightly.
• Bake for about 15 minutes until golden and feel firm. Cool on a wire rack. Keep in an airtight container for 2 weeks, or freeze.

Bread & Marmalade Pudding

Looking through this leaflet full of ideas to 'stretch the sugar ration' I've decided upon Bread and Marmalade Pudding for tonight. I'm wondering if this leaflet should be re-named 'How to stretch the ink ration' as most of the recipes only seem to have a couple of ingredients, one of the reasons I'm intrigued with this dish! I'm not sure how confident I feel about 'spreading the marmalade over the breadcrumbs' though...

BREAD & MARMALADE PUDDING
4 0z. breadcrumbs, 1 pint milk, fresh or household
3-4 tablespoons marmalade

Place half the breadcrumbs in a 1 1/2 pint pie dish. Spread over the marmalade and cover with the remaining crumbs, adding the milk last. Bake in a moderately hot oven for 1-1 1/2 hours, when the pudding should be set and golden brown.

P.S. This wasn't very nice, like eating wallpaper paste with a hint of bitter orange and dried Copydex.

Fig Rolls

Yesterday I received a wonderful surprise parcel from my Gourmet Sister J, lots of delicious goodies and a fantastic little book 'The field Guide to Cookies' (Anita Chu/Quirk Books) with recipes for nearly every cookie imaginable including one of my favorite, Fig Rolls.

FIG ROLLS

makes about 16

150g Plain Flour

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1/4 tsp Salt

110g Butter

175g Soft Brown Sugar

1 Egg

3/4 Vanilla Extract

1 tsp Orange Zest

Filling

215g Dried Figs, chopped

1 tbls Sugar

• Sift flour, salt and baking soda. Cream butter and sugar together until fluffy, add the egg, orange zest and vanilla extract and mix. Add flour and mix on low speed to form a dough. Turn dough onto cling film and chill for an hour.
• To make the filling put figs, sugar and 240 ml of water into a saucepan, bring to a boil, reduce heat and cook until it reaches a jammy consistency. Set aside and cool.
• Divide the dough into two and roll first piece out on a floured surface, roll into a rectangle about 18 x 30cm. Carefully transfer to a sheet of parchment paper.
• Spread the filling down the centre half of the dough, fold one side over the middle and then the other side over the top - this will be obvious as you do it! Flip cookie over onto it's seam side. Repeat with other half of dough and then chill for 20 minutes. Meanwhile preheat oven 375/190/Gas 5.
• Bake for 20 minutes. Allow to cool and then cut into 4cm slices.

Flan aux Raisins

I bought some bad grapes yesterday. I should have tried one in the shop (is that shop-lifting? I never know. I suppose you wouldn't take a bite from an apple or banana before buying, so why does it seem okay to try a grape?). Anyway, I took a chance and it didn't pay off. So here am I with a pound of the sourest grapes that nobody in the house will touch, maybe if I hide them in a Grape Flan.....

Flan aux Raisins

serves six

For the pastry

200g Plain Flour

125g Butter

1 Egg

A Little Cold Water

For the filling

125g Green Grapes

125g Black Grapes

2 Medium Eggs

100g Caster Sugar

3 Tablespoons Ground Almonds

100ml Double Cream

25g Flaked Almonds (not in photo as I didn't have any!)

25cm Flan Tin with loose base, (buttered & floured)

• Preheat oven to 230 C/450 F/Gas 8.
• Put flour into food processor, cut butter into small pieces and pulse until it resembles breadcrumbs (or rub in by hand). Add the egg and a little cold water, process again until a ball forms. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes then roll out thinly and line the flan tin, chill again for another 30 minutes.
• Wash, pick through and thoroughly dry the grapes, arrange over the pastry base.
• Beat the eggs and caster sugar together until pale and thick, beat in the ground almonds and then the cream. Pour over grapes and sprinkle with the flaked almonds and bake for 20 minutes. reduce heat to 200 C/400 F/Gas 6 and bake for a further 20 minutes.
• If the surface is browning too quickly place a sheet of foil over the top. Serve warm.

Tapas Bars

When is a Tapas Bar not a Tapas Bar? When it's in England. How has every 'Tapas Bar' in this country missed the point of Tapas? They've done to Tapas what Centre Parcs has done to the Great Outdoors; taken something that should be enjoyed for it's very simplicity; for the free licence it gives to tuck in, get messy and have fun and has spent millions cleaning, sterilising and re-packaging it. It's just another safe and shiny ride in the slowly evolving theme park of modern life - another Accessory Experience to add to the generic calender of 'Great Family Days Out'.

Food is such a major commodity in bars and pubs now that it can't be simple, simple is their secret weapon, their 'buzz word', it's what Gastro Pubs thrive on, less is more. Everyone wants to see simple meals on the chalk boards; Pies, Liver & Bacon, Ploughman's Lunches... but there is the small print; the Pies are made with the most expensive 'Normandy Butter and Flour milled by Fairies and baked in an original 18th Century Baker's Oven', the Liver is from farmed Unicorn and the ploughman's lunch has 'Handcrafted' bread. Why can't we have a Tapas Bar that sells snacks; just small morsels of food, of bread, sliced sausage, potato croquettes, olives, ham, meatballs, anchovies? Just small dishes of food, plain and cheap but very tasty and easy to eat with a drink in one hand, not a thesaurus.

Casseroled Sheep's Hearts

There is something quite sinister about Sifta Sam in his white bell-bottoms, comedy sailor's hat, starched beard and the grin of a man who has just pickled his neighbour's cat. He's the kind of character who would have given me nightmares as a child and put me off salt for life. Most of the recipes in the book are inviting but there is one which I am sure is the work of Sifta Sam, Casseroled Sheep's Hearts. Now I'll eat liver and, on occassion, will eat edited kidney, but not heart. Maybe I will try it one day and think differently? But for now this recipe is nothing but grim. Please don't try this at home!


Recipe No 102

CASSEROLED SHEEP'S HEARTS

Clean four hearts and soak them in salt water for half an hour. Dice 2 carrots, 2 onions and 1 turnip. Put them in a casserole with A1 Cooking Salt, pepper and a bunch of herbs. Lay the hearts on top. Half cover with stock or water. Cook slowly for about two hours. remove the herbs. Thicken the liquor with blended browned flour. Serve with boiled potatoes.

Golden Soup

I love my ministry of Food leaflets. I imagine my grandmothers following the recipes and conjuring up simple meals and treats from the tiny bounty in their wicker shopping baskets.

This recipe is so modestly simple and it tastes lovely with lots of warm bread and butter.

GOLDEN SOUP

serves four

2 1/2 Pints of water

2-3 Level teaspoons of salt

3/4 - 1 lb Carrots, coarsely grated

1/2 oz Dripping or margarine (I used butter)

2 Level tablespoons semolina

1/4 Level teaspoon pepper

2 Level tablespoons chopped parsley or watercress

Bring the water and salt to the boil, add the carrots and fat and boil gently for 10 minutes, or until tender. Blend the semolina and pepper to a smooth paste with a little cold water, add some soup, mix well and return to the pan. Stir until it boils and boil gently for 5 minutes. Serve hot sprinkled with chopped parsley or watercress.